OCZ has announced the new Deneva 2 series of enterprise SSDs that will now include 2.5-inch, 6Gbps SATA III models that feature 19nm NAND Multi-Level Cell (MLC) flash paired up with LSI's Sandforce SF-2281 controller, as well as an improved power architecture that will bring the superior storage performance, endurance, reliability as well as excellent total cost of ownership, something that is quite important in the enterprise industry.

In addition to the new 19nm NAND flash process geometry, the new Deneva 2 series will also feature a new power architecture designed from the ground up in order to optimize server back plane functionality. Based on the popular LSI Sandforce SF-2281 controller now paired up with 19nm toggle mode NAND MLC flash chips, the new Deneva 2 SSDs will offer read and write performance of up to 550MB/s and 520MB/s with random 4K read and write performance of up to 45K and 34K IOPS.

Daryl Lang, SVP of Product Management at OCZ technology noted that Deneva 2 SSD series has already been popular among IT professionals for enterprise applications as OnLine Transaction Processing, database warehousing, read intensive data caching and server boot-ups and that latest NAND flash process will deliver optimal balance of I/O performance and cost-efficiency for customers.

To be available in 120, 240 and 480GB capacities the new Deneva 2 series will also feature data fail recovery, intelligent block management, wear leveling and robust error correction as well as lower power consumption.

Kingston has announced a new addition to the SSDNow family of solid state drives, the KC300. To be available in capacities of up to 480GB and both as a stand-alone drive or as an upgrade bundle kit, the KC300 features LSI Sandforce second-generation SF-2281 controller, advance power management and decent performance.

Packed in a 2.5-inch 7mm-thick form factor with SATA 6Gbps interface, the new KC300 line of SSDs will be replacing the V+200 and the KC100 line of drives in Kingston's bussines SSD family. It features enterprise-grade SMART, Data Integrity Protection with DuraWrite technology as well as RAISE support that reduces the number of uncorrectable errors in the drive.

The new KC300 line of SSDs will be available in 60, 120, 180, 240 and 480GB capacities with sequential read and write performance of up to 525MB/s and 500MB/s and PCMark Vantage HDD suite score of up to 57,000. The maximum random 4k read/write performance is at up to 84k/64k IOPS for the 60, 120 and 180GB models, up to 84k/52k IOPS for the 240GB one and up to 73k/32k IOPS for the 480GB model.

The entire line features a three-year warranty and MTBF of 1 million hours. As noted earlier, all capacity options will be available as a stand-alone SSD or as an upgrade bundle kit that includes 2.5-inch USB enclosure, 3.5-inch bracket, HDD cloning software and 7 to 9.5mm adapter.

Unfortunately, Kingston did not shed any light on the actual price or the availability date for the new KC300 SSD series.

ADATA announced its newest addition to the SSD lineup, the enterprise grade SX1000L SSDs. To be available in 100GB and 200GB capacities, the SX1000L SSDs are based on MLC NAND flash memory combined with Sandforce controller and offer a quite decent performance.

The new SX1000L line of SSD uses static wear-leveling technology to maximize device MTBP to 1,500,000 hours, something that is quite required when you are talking about high density computing and heavy load server operations.

The new SX1000L SSDs are packed in a standard 2.5-inch SATA 6Gbps form factor and use LSI's Sandforce SF-2281 controller combined with MLC NAND flash memory with enhanced NAND sorting methodology. The maximum performance is 560MB/s for sequential read and 340MB/s for sequential write while maximum 4K random read and write are at 73k and 45k IOPS.

The ADATA SX1000L SSDs are backed by a five year warranty but the precise price and launch date have not been announced.

In addition to the recent price drop for its 320, 330 and 520 series SSDs, Intel is preparing a slight refresh scheduled to launch in Q3 and Q4 2012, according to the recently leaked roadmap at Chinese.VR-Zone.com.

The roadmap kicks off with a rather interesting entry-level 300 series that will apparently get a new 335 series update in Q3 2012. According to the roadmap, the 335 series will initially launch in 240GB capacity and get 80 and 180GB model update in Q1 2013. The new 335 series will most likely still be based on the same SF-2281 controller, be available in 2.5-inch form factor with the SATA 6Gbps interface, and will probably be paired up with a tweaked firmware and a new 20nm NAND flash memory.

The next in line is the 525 series, that will most likely stick with the same SF-2281 controller as the 520 series but might get additional performance via tweaked firmware as well. According to the report, the 525 series will apparently stick with 25nm NAND, rather than going with new 20nm one. Unlike the 335 series, the new 525 series will ship in mSATA form factor, although 2.5-inch versions are possible as well, but not detailed in the roadmap. The 525 series is scheduled for Q4 2012 and will be available in 30, 120, 180 and 240GB capacities.

Although rumours regarding MSI's involvement in the SSD market surfaced only last week, we now already have full details regarding the upcoming MSI Reflex SSD lineup, courtesy of Insideindustrynews.com.

Based on the Sandforce SF-2281 controller, the new MSI Reflex series SSDs will be available in 60, 120 and 240GB capacities and feature read and write performance of up to 560MB/s and 525MB/s. Of course, every model will have different maximum read and write speeds so the 60GB ends up at up to 525/495MB/s, the 120GB one has 550/515MB/s read and write speeds while the top 240GB model ends up at maximum 560/525MB/s.

Random 4K performance is set at 85K IOPS for 60GB model and 90K IOPS for 120 and 240GB models. The entire lineup feature SATA 6Gbps interface and will ship with included 3.5-inch bracket.

Unfortunately, the precise price and availability date have not been revealed but we are sure we will hear more about them pretty soon.

In addition to recent price cuts across its SSD range, Intel has added a new 240GB model to its SSD 330 series. Introduced back in April, the Intel 330 series SSDs were available in 60, 120 and 180GB capacities and offered quite competitive pricing.

This 2.5-inch SATA 6Gbps 330 series SSD is based on the LSI-Sandforce SF-2281 controller paired up with 25nm MLC NAND flash chips and will offer sequential speeds of up to 500MB/s for read and up to 450MB/s for write. The random 4K performance is set at 42K IOPS for read and 52K IOPS for write. In case you missed it, the performance numbers are exactly the same as on the 180GB model.

Unfortunately, Intel has not announced the price or the availabiltiy date, but judging by the rest of the lineup, it could end up in the US $200 range.

Intel has now officially released a long overdue update to its 320-series SSDs, the new Sandforce SF-2281 based 330-series. The new 330-series will be available in 60, 120 and 180GB capacities and features a very competitive pricing.

As you may have noticed, the new Intel SSD 330-series features the same controller found in Intel's 520-series SSDs but still features slightly lower performance in terms of sequential read and write speeds. In order to make it more competitive, Intel opted for a slightly dsifferent NAND, or to be precise, a lower binned NAND that isn't up to 520-series standards. As opposed to the 520-series NAND that is rated for 5,000 erase cycles, the one on 330-series is "only" rated for 3,000 erase cycles. This also afects warranty which has been reduced from five years on the 520-series to three years on the 330-series.

In order to achieve those 3,000 cycles and make sure that 330-series SSD just does not go up in smoke, Intel implemented various firmware optimizations that also reduce controller perfomance. As far as the shere performance numbers are concerned, the 330-series will offer up to 500MB/s of sequential read and up to 450MB/s (400MB/s on 60GB model) for sequential write performance. The random 4KB read and write is set at 42k/52k IOPS on the 180GB model which is much lower than 50k/80k IOPS on the 520-series drive, but still decently higher than 320-series 23k/39.5k. Of course 60 and 120GB models have slightly lower random 4KB performance.

The main advantage of the new 330-series SSDs will be their price as Intel is setting the MSRP at US $89 for the 60GB model, US $149 for the 120GB one and US $234 for the 180GB, which makes it quite cheap in the currently available SATA 6Gbps SSD lineup, if not one of the cheapest SSDs around.

Kingston has updated its line of solid state drive with yet another HyperX branded SSD series based on the Sandforce SF-2281 controller, the HyperX 3K SSD series.

Unlike the already available HyperX SH100S3 SSD series, the new ones (SH103S3) use a "lower quality" but still premium synchronous NAND flash chips that are enough for 3000 program-erase cycles, thus the 3K monicker in the model name. The original HyperX SSD used Intel's 25nm MLC NAND enough for 5K P/E cycles. The use of these NAND chips will bring lower price but maintain the performance and quality that are worthy of HyperX brand.

Both lines use the same Sandforce SF-2281 controller and have pretty much the same specs as the only difference that we were able to see is a minor difference in maximum random 4K read and write. The new HyperX 3K series will be available in 90, 120, 240 and 480GB capacities and offer sequential read and write speeds of up to 555MB/s and 510MB/s. The 480GB model has a slightly lower 540MB/s and 450MB/s transfer speeds. The sustained random 4K is set at 20k/50k for 90GB all the way to 60k/45k for the 480GB model while maximum random 4k read and write is set at anywhere between 85k/74k for the 90GB model to 75k/48k for the 480GB one.

Same as the original HyperX SSD series, these will also be available as a stand-alone drive or upgrade bundle kit, and will offer same three-year warranty. It will be packed in a same aluminum 2.5-inch case that is now colored in black.

Unfortunately, other than a promise that it will be cheaper, Kingston didn't shed any light regarding the actual price of this SSD series or the actual release date. You can check out the full specification list here.

We have stumbled upon an interesting deal done by Newegg.com and OCZ for OCZ's Agility 3 SSD, where you can get a Sandforce-based 240GB SSD drive with decent performance figures for as little as US $287.99. Newegg.com also throws in a free Mass Effect 3 game as a limited offer to sweeten the deal.

In case you missed it, the OCZ Agility 3 is based on Sandforce SF-2281 controller paired up with MLC NAND flash chips and offers up to 525MB/s of sustained sequential read performance and up to 500MB/s of sustained sequential write performance when plugged via SATA 6Gbps interface. The 4K random read and write are set at 35k and 45k IOPS, while the max 4K random write is at 85K IOPS.

The US $287.99 deal is a limited offer with one unit per customer limitation and is currently in stock, although we are not sure for how long.

Update: The rest of the OCZ Agility 3 lineup also got a decent price cut and are offered at Newegg.com with a free 8GB USB flash drive. For example, the 120GB Agility 3 SSD was cut down from US $199.99 to US $158.99 while the 60GB one got a price cut from US $169.99 to US $89.99 and also comes with a free 8GB USB flash drive. You can find them all here.

Intel has updated its SSD line with the Cheryville 520 SSD, based on the Sandforce SF-2281 controller paired up with 25nm MLC NAND memory and SATA 6Gbps interface.

Although the new Intel 520 SSD lineup is based on the quite well known SF-2281 controller that has been plagued by infamous BSOD F4/F7 issues, Intel claims that its 520 will have far fewer issues than any SF-2281 based SSD. According to Intel, 520 SSD reliability lies in high quality NAND chips made by IMFT as well as redesigned PCB and custom firmware.

Of course, reliability has to be proven over time but according to some of the first reviews, things look quite good for Intel's Cheryville 520 series. The Intel 520 series provide up to 520MB/s of sustained sequential write performance and up to 550MB/s of sustained sequential read performance with random 4KB read of up to 50,000 IOPS and random 4KB write of up to 60k IOPS.

As expected, the Intel 520 SSD will be available in 60, 120, 180, 240 and 480GB capacities with prices ranging from US $149 for the 60 and up to US $999 for the 480GB one.